------------------"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time

So, I guess we won't believe anything until those "experts" over at Harvard say it's true. That figures. I knew we were in a recession since I started noticing all my friends, co-workers, and family telling me about how horrible things were in the workplace. One again, everyone in this country is dependent on OTHER, "experts" to get the truth. Where were these experts last summer? Do we really need experts to tell us this country is going down the drain? PLLLLLLLEEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE!

Well, what goes up must go down, and what goes down must go up; atleast as far as Economics is concerned.

My economics teacher used to compare economic cycles (ie- recession and expansion) to his wife who had PMS all too frequently (apparently), saying that they were as 'moody as the woman's behaviourial patterns'.

A very true reality, Dan. It's always funny how the "experts" are the last to "get it."

Melon

------------------"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time

A: One. ONE!! And do you know WHY it only takes ONE? Because no one else in this house knows HOW to change a light bulb. They don't even know the bulb is BURNED OUT. They would sit in this house in the dark for THREE DAYS before they figured it OUT. And once they figured it out they wouldn't be able to find the light bulbs despite the fact that they've been in the SAME CUPBOARD for the past SEVENTEEN YEARS. But if they did, by some miracle, actually find the light bulbs, TWO DAYS LATER the chair that they dragged from two rooms over to stand on to change the STUPID light bulb would STILL BE IN THE SAME SPOT!! AND UNDERNEATH IT WOULD BE THE CRUMPLED WRAPPER THE STUPID @*!#$% LIGHT BULBS CAME IN! WHY?! BECAUSE NO ONE IN THIS HOUSE EVER CARRIES OUT THE GARBAGE!! IT'S A WONDER WE HAVEN'T ALL SUFFOCATED FROM THE PILES OF GARBAGE THAT ARE 12 FEET DEEP THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE HOUSE. THE HOUSE!! IT WOULD TAKE AN ARMY TO CLEAN THIS...

OK about these experts you guys are ripping on. They're actually part of a think tank organization that sits down and actually determines a start date for a recession to help create a clearer picture for economists and analysts on exactly where it started so they can better predict when it will end and give a better historical perspective to future recessions. To get a better idea of what has been actaulyl accomplished with this report go to nber.org.

Everyone knows we've been in a recession for awhile. Hence all the rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, which have been more deeper and more frequent than in previous years.

And to think, before I started working for a financial newspaper I would have understood none of this.

To be completely truthful with you, the fact is, America HASN'T been in a recession. While everyone in the media takes it for granted that it has been in recession, people keep forgetting what the word actuall means in Economic terms; negative economic growth, and that doesn't simply mean that economic growth becomes slower or minimal. If figures are slumping, that doesn't mean recession, its only recession when economic growth is negative and is sutained as negative.

Now, I don't know what the situation is now, but back in the early part of summer, when the press was going on about how America was IN recession, the fact was that it wasn't.

If you America is in recession, I don't actually think it will be that drastic. I'd be more worried if I was Japanese. Now, THEIR economy is definately in trouble.

Originally posted by Klodomir:If things have been going so well all through Clinton's administration, why do people always say that a republican government is better for the economy?

Republicans say this, just as much as Democrats say the opposite. It goes back and forth.

Melon

------------------"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time

Originally posted by Klodomir:Can I just ask an ignorant question? If things have been going so well all through Clinton's administration, why do people always say that a republican government is better for the economy?

This actually had nothing to do with a Republican/Democrat president. We went through the longest sustained econimc growth-- coincidentally under his presidency-- because of the dot-com business in the late '90s. People spent more money and invested more money which in turn kept the economy going well past when it should have started to decline. The problem was that while these dot-coms were creating all this money and people were making millions off of technology stocks, those tech companies weren't making anything. Essentially, they were money pits that kept throwing away millions and millions of dollars. It was evident near the end of last year when all these dot-coms were laying people off that we were going to be going in to a recession-- and this was even before the presidential elections. Some of it may have been Clinton but some of it was pure luck.

As to why people say Republicans are better for the economy-- its based on the idea that Republicans are less likely to tax than Democrats. Democrats want to publically fund programs for the homeless and welfare and that money comes from the pockets of taxpayers. Republicans believe that less taxes means more money people want to spend, thereby keeping the economy going. Buying more products creates more jobs to make those products. Both are right in some ways and wrong in others.

------------------"Things will not be the same in this city for us." -Bono, Dublin, February 1980